


The Unmaking of Caroline Forbes

by Helpfulfairy92



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
Genre: But makes new ones, Caroline doesn't have great friends, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23425726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helpfulfairy92/pseuds/Helpfulfairy92
Summary: “Call Bonnie. Ask for her help for the ritual. Talk to your friends, and get the girl to the woods, we start at moonrise tomorrow”
Relationships: Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson
Comments: 28
Kudos: 131





	1. Chapter One

“Did you have fun with her?” She’s curious, and a little mad at her husband. He had spent the night dancing with another woman, while she has been relegated to a room in a hotel, over an hour away. 

Klaus is still in his suit jacket, though the bowtie and waistcoat abandoned the second the people had cleared out of the house, his hair is mussed from where he has run his hands through it in his frustration. 

Kol had attempted to kill one of the humans, Matt, and he and Elijah had spent the latter part of the evening compelling guests to forget that Damon had thrown Kol over the balcony, his spine broken in several places, Matt’s hand fractured. 

Rebekah had refused to help out of spite.   
Matt had been her date, and she was mad that Kol had attempted something tonight, of all nights, when they all knew how important it was that nothing went awry. 

It had been all too easy to manipulate their mother, and with Finn helping, it was child’s play to get her to do exactly what they needed. She wasn’t as crafty as she thought she was. When Esther thought she had performed a silencing spell, they had already had the house spelled to negate any magic. Maddox was really due a raise he thought idly, pouring a drink for them both, handing one to his annoyed wife. 

“Not really” he answered honestly, he’d been too busy making sure that Esther saw Caroline as much as possible, making sure everything went as planned. This plan had been in place for far too long to be messed up by a simple mistake, Kol had earned a broken neck and was locked in the basement until tomorrow morning. 

“I feel a little bad” Klaus confessed, sitting down on the coffee table in front of her couch, sipping from his glass, “knowing what was in front of her. It won’t be easy” she hums in agreement.   
“I know, but it’s supposed to happen” she reaches over, her fingers gentle on his face, and he leans into her palm.   
“We know it will be ok, and it will be worth it” he turns his head, kisses her palm, letting her calm wash over him.   
He has to go soon, needs to be back in the house so that when Caroline’s friends come calling he can be appropriately mad and unconcerned at the same time. 

“Finn is at the boarding house, Rebekah is still supervising the caterers. She doesn’t trust them. But she’s coming over once she’s finished there, Kol was supposed to ride over with her, though I don’t know if she will let him out of the basement, let alone in the car after his little stunt earlier. I’m not all that impressed either” his wife huffs a little laugh.   
“You know how Kol is. He needs a bit of violence to temper his nerves, we were expecting something like this from him” the plan is still airtight. 

She knows. 

“When do you have to go?” she asks, ready for the whole ordeal to be done. She has been living in this hotel for far too long, has been making a case to have her husband take her back to Paris for an extended holiday.   
“He’s leaving now darling, you and I are on our own until it’s done” Kol is dramatic as always, has burst into the hotel suite, a cheeky grin fixed on his face.  
“Rebekah has decided to stay at the house, Esther is still there, being shady and our dear sister doesn’t trust mother” he flings himself into an armchair, watching his brother sigh, before finishing his drink, and kissing his wife.   
“I’ll call you later” is all he says as he leaves.   
“Want to try and get drunk?” Kol asks as soon as the door is closed behind him.

She scoffs at that, draining her glass and holding it out for him to top it up. 

.……..

“Elena, I’m sure you’re wondering what you’re doing here” Esther had a softer voice than she was expecting, kind and gentle. 

“I-Yes” Elena had no clue, and it showed in her uncertain reply, the way she twisted the index finder of her glove, the way she was balanced on the edges of her heels. 

“I want to unmake my children” Esther lied smoothly.   
There was no way to undo the magic on her children, the spell was a thousand years old, she didn’t have enough power to even attempt it. Even if she had every witch on the planet with her, it still wouldn’t scratch the surface.   
She had been warned that she would regret it one day. Ayanna hadn’t been at all subtle with her warnings.   
No, what she would be doing, would be very different than unmaking her children.   
As long as Elena picked the girl, picked Caroline, she would be able to pull the magic from her body. It had been less than a year, would be easy enough if she and the Bennet girl did it. It hadn’t yet settled into her bones, the fabric of her being, was only living beneath her skin. It wouldn’t work with an older vampire, the spell too deep in their bones.   
It wouldn’t work on Esther’s children for this exact purpose, it was too much a part of them to be undone now.   
Elena looked alarmed, like Esther was expecting for Elena to do the stripping. She was tempted to roll her eyes for a second. 

“I can’t-“ Elena started to respond, and Esther smiled calmly.   
“No, no, I will need your friend Bonnie to help, she and I can do the spell, we just need a vampire to test it on. It will be easier with a fresh vampire” as long as Elena caught on, she would be able to complete her plan. 

“How will this help?” Elena asked, standing a little straighter.   
“I need to make sure it can be done first, it has never been performe-“ 

“Why should I believe you? It hasn’t even been done before” It took everything in Esther to not sigh and roll her eyes. She hasn’t been out of her coffin for very long and already she hates this generation. So rude. She takes a slow, measured breath instead. 

“When I died, when my son ripped my heart out, I was sent to the other side. I was miserable there, forever cursed to watch my children become monsters, to watch as they ruined the gift they had been given, the atrocities they have performed over the centuries. It was my eternal punishment by the spirits of witches gone before, it was all my fault. They made sure that I was aware of that, every single moment. All I want is the chance to strip that which made them monsters, to stop the torment of anyone else in the future. I can’t undo my past sins, but I can try and hope for a better future” Esther let her eyes shine, in the hopes that Elena brought it. 

She was certainly slow on the uptake, Finn was frustrated at how long it was taking her to understand what they were asking, his fingers drumming on the table while Elena turned the idea over in her mind. 

She seemed to come to a conclusion, her expression setting in determination. 

“I know who we can test it on. It’s my fault she was turned in the first place, she-“ Elena broke off, biting her lip. 

“Call Bonnie. Ask for her help for the ritual. Talk to your friends, and get the girl to the woods, the same place where Klaus broke his curse” she handed Elena a copy of the spell,   
“We start at moonrise tomorrow” 

………..

Bonnie has never been more thankful not be invited to a party.   
When Elena calls her, she is lounging on her couch, socked feet on the back of the couch, watching some reality tv that Caroline had put her onto.   
“Hey, how was it?” Bonnie doesn’t really want to know, the originals make her supremely uncomfortable, the wrongness of them making her skin crawl.   
“Esther wants your help with something. Can you meet me at the boarding house in twenty?” Bonnie agrees, sighing heavily once she hangs up. 

Ever since the Salvatore’s had turned up, life had gone topsy turvy. She longed for the days when life was as simple what they were doing that weekend and Caroline being a dictator with the cheer squad. Now it was all life and death and vampires and ancient previously dead witches demanding her help at all hours of the night. 

Taking a minute to mourn what her life had turned into, she pushed herself off the couch and went to find something to wear other than her sweatpants. Midnight calls to the Salvatore house usually always involved magic, and traipsing through the woods, something that required jeans and a decent sweater. 

………..

“So you’re telling me, all I have to do is do this spell with Esther and Caroline goes back human? And you’re sure we can trust Esther?” Bonnie’s disbelief must show on her face because Elena huffs impatiently, her answer sharper than usual.   
“Yes. That’s all you have to do. And yes I’m sure. She just wants to unmake her children”   
Bonnie turns the idea over in her head, unsure. She has felt the spell on the originals, knows how old it feels. It’s strong, but maybe Esther is strong enough to break it. It is her spell after all. 

“Okay. But it isn’t going to hurt Caroline right?” At this Damon interrupts whatever Elena was about to say   
“Who cares?” he’s dismissive as usual, of anyone who isn’t Elena. “It’s just blondie, and she should be happy once it’s all done” he rolls his eyes, his opinion of Caroline clear. 

………..

Finn is standing outside the Salvatore house, listening to them discuss their plan, which is all going well, exactly as she it should.   
He’s tempted to call Sage, assure her that everything was going to plan, though he knows it would give him away, too close to the patio doors.   
As he’s out there, they discuss the best way to get Caroline on board, eventually deciding to knock her out, and keep her knocked out until the ritual, they don’t want to give her a chance to say no. 

There are several disparaging comments he chooses to ignore, knowing that she is likely to get mad if he ruins anything.   
The amount of vervain they have seems like overkill, and Damon seems oddly thrilled at the opportunity to have Caroline unconscious, but Finn knows better than to interfere. 

Everything needs to go as planned. 

‘It’s ready’ is what he sends to Klaus just before heading back to the manor to report back to Esther. 

………..

It’s easier than she expected. 

She and Elena go to Caroline’s, on the pretence of catching Caroline up on what Esther had said to Elena the night before.   
Caroline never even suspects them, even as Elena injects her with the vervain. They lay Caroline on her bed, and Bonnie makes sure she can’t move. They discuss the spell, their plan, dosing her again when she starts twitching. The rest of the day passes in a similar fashion, though Caroline never gets close to waking up again, and they manage to sneak her out of the house and into Damon’s car before the sheriff gets home. 

It all goes off without a hitch.


	2. Chapter Two

Caroline came awake the wrong way.   
Like an overdose from vervain wrong. 

The last time she woke from a large dose of vervain, it had been a violent waking, painful. Her veins had been burning, lungs blistering and unable to heal. Her blood boiling in her body.   
This felt like that again, she was on fire from the inside out. Only this time she couldn’t move away from it.  
She couldn’t move a muscle, couldn’t twitch a finger or a toe. She has no control over her body, can’t hear, smell, her eyes are glued closed.   
The only thing she can feel is how much it hurts, a constant burn, and no way to get away from it. 

She’s’ really starting to hate magic.   
As she lay there, the first thing she becomes aware of, is the whispers. 

It was Bonnie and Elena, and luckily for her no matter how quiet they thought they were being, she can still hear what they’re saying.   
“-n’t think she’ll be mad. She’s our friend, she will understand” that was Bonnie, she sounds worried.   
“It’s Caroline. She will only be mad she was left out of the planning” Elena replies, though her voice is biting.

“And you’re sure that this is going to work” Elena quickly says before Bonnie can say thing else. At this, Caroline twitches her toes, because even though she knows (hopes) that Bonnie would never hurt her, the thought of magic still makes her nervous. 

Bonnie continues, never noticing the vampire working through the vervain in her system.   
“I think so. I’ve memorised most of it. I should be done well before we need to be there” Bonnie sounds sure, the kind of sure that would usually make Caroline calm down, this however, makes her more nervous. 

She had only met the original witch once, last night. She had come by to chat to Klaus after they had been dancing, Caroline still feels icky after the long look Esther had given her. She had excused herself quickly, not wanting to be around for any conversation between Klaus and the mother who had put even the originals on edge. 

It’s at this point that they must look over, notice she’s waking up, because there’s the sharp pinch of a needle in her arm and everything goes black again. 

………

When she wakes up a second time, all her senses turn on right away, there’s a moment of disorientation, too many smells and sounds and sensations for her to make sense of.   
She takes a steadying breath, smells the grass under her face, the smell of burning wood, acrid smoke, the ominous crackle of flames.   
She still can’t move, not even twitch her toes this time. She is getting really sick of waking up like this.   
She takes another breath, can hear three lush human heartbeats. Can smell their anxiousness, Damon’s obnoxious cologne, the odd mix of hair products from Stefan, there is another vampire present, can hear the odd heartbeat, though it’s not someone she recognises.   
Someone is turning pages in a book, calm, her heartbeat is steady, doesn’t flutter or jump, she assumes this is Esther, she can recognise the sound of Bonnie’s, though it’s jumpy, nervous. Elena’s is faster than usual, excited not anxious like Bonnies. 

Taking another deep breath, she can taste the air, and she doesn’t like the result.   
There’s salt all around her, grass, trees, dirt, dead wood. She tries to open her eyes, but it’s a gargantuan effort, and she only manages to crack open one, a sliver. Not enough to see anything really.   
She can see shadows flickering, a ring of flame casting them, salt inside the flames, a trench of freshly dug earth, can smell the fresh clean water inside the trench. 

Holy shit. 

She doesn’t know what they are planning on doing to her, but she does not want any part in this.  
Before she can dig up the energy to open her mouth, Esther clears her throat. 

She and Bonnie begin chanting, their voices raising and falling in unison.   
Caroline’s anxiousness rises as the wind does. The flames are growing hotter, and it takes every ounce of her strength to attempt calm. 

It’s not something she achieves before the pain starts. 

The first thing she notices is the feeling in her toes, like someone is slowly pulling out her toenails, with a burning set of pliers.   
It feels like the skin is being peeled from her, the flesh boiling on her bones, the borrowed blood in her veins too hot, the chanting is loud in her ears, suffocating. 

As the pain moves up her legs, time ceases to mean anything, the only sensation that exists is the excruciating pain she’s in.   
She can’t move, and all she wants to do is scream and scream until her throat is as raw as the rest of her feels. Her eyes are still closed and she’s terrified in the dark, wants to cry and plead and do anything to make the pain stop. 

Nothing exists outside of the pain and terror. 

Thankfully, she succumbs to the darkness, losing consciousness. 

………..

The third time she wakes up, the pain has stopped, the absence of it leaving her gasping.   
She tries to sit, roll over, tense up, but she’s weak and her bones feel like jelly. She’s hunched awkwardly on the ground, limbs askew and hair covering her face. The ground chafes against her raw skin, and the grass is stabbing into her like thousands of pin pricks. Her mouth is dry, and her tongue feels like it’s too big for her mouth, dry like she’s been drinking dirt.   
She wants out of this ritual circle, wants to go home, shower, suck down several blood bags and sleep for a week. 

There’s no chanting anymore, a soft murmur of words she can’t make out over the gasping of her breath and pounding heartbeat. She can vaguely hear the sound of feet shuffling in the dirt, a cough that sounds like Bonnie, though it’s distorted, doesn’t sound like it normally does. 

Caroline is confused, why would her friends put her through so much pain. What has just happened is far worse than Bill’s conditioning, both the physical and emotional betrayal.   
She’s working up to making a noise, trying to speak, something when the chanting starts again.   
It’s not the same as it was before, definitely not Latin anymore. The words are unfamiliar, a language she’s never heard before, whoever is using them is fluent, and they don’t stutter. Must be Esther, as far as she knows, Bonnie is still struggling with her Latin. 

She is pulled up by an invisible string behind her bellybutton, her limbs following, head lolling back. She still can’t open her eyes, and now she is genuinely panicking, floating off the earth, wind whipping around her, unfamiliar chanting from a witch she can’t trust, after being impressively tortured for an unknown amount of time, with unknown consequences while her friends watched on. Had likely participated in getting her there, and encouraged Esther in her crazy plot. 

The pain is returning, her stomach twisting, and she wishes she could vomit, but she has no control over her body, nothing is working like it should. Her nerve endings are on fire, burnt to a crisp by whatever they’d just done to her.   
The chanting is getting louder, and there is no move to interrupt whatever is going on. Caroline would be furious if she wasn’t so close to bawling, vomiting or screaming. 

The light gets brighter behind her eyes, burning so bright that there is no shadows, she can hear the yells of surprise from the others, knows it must be searing, the heat intensifies, burning against her already raw skin. 

And then, just as suddenly as it had started, everything stops and when she opens her eyes, it’s to the bright midday sun. No ritual site, no witches, no Elena, no Damon, no Stefan. 

Only soft grass, birds, and the loud beating of her heart.

Her very human heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is ch 2!   
> Please leave me a review! Would be great to hear what people think!


	3. Chapter Three

Caroline lay on the hard dirt gasping. 

She felt like she had been run over by a truck, beaten within an inch of her life and then put through a blender.   
She’s more than a bit confused, staring up at the sky, watching heavy clouds that threaten rain.

For what feels like a long time, though she isn’t sure, she can’t focus on anything past her shortness of breath and twitching muscles. Her brain was not able to make sense of anything but her heartbeat, and even that was something she felt had significance, but no matter how hard she tried, the reason behind it’s significance wouldn’t come to her.   
Her thoughts feel like partially set jello, as soon as she grasps them, they slip away into liquid, and she’s left with nothing. 

She needs to figure out what’s happened. 

She tries to focus on what she knows.   
She knows she went to that ridiculous ball, (A half amused expression forms, what kind of family throws an honest to god ball?) she was laughing and pretending she wasn’t having a good time, that she wasn’t enjoying the feel of being in Klaus’ arms, being whirled about the dance floor. Pretend she wasn’t enjoying being the centre of attention, the jealous looks and questioning glances.   
Most of all the way she could feel Klaus’ eyes track across her face. 

She knows she tried to talk Elena out of talking to Esther, sure that anything involving that woman was going to be a bad idea. She knows she tried to talk Elena into a different plan, had almost convinced her too. And then the idiot brothers had shown up, had taken over and pushed her ideas aside, as if trusting Elena to someone she had known her entire life was a bad idea.   
No matter the front they put across, those two idiots could not take the entire original family and their scary as heck witch mother.   
All Elena had to do was play nice for a couple of hours, have a chat and see what Esther wanted, and then they could leave. She had a plan, and as long as Elena did what she was told, there was a very good chance that they would both make it out alive.   
And then the two idiot brothers had turned up, and Caroline had been forced to abandon all her plans. She had been pushed off to distract Klaus, while Elena conspired with Stefan who put Damon out of commission (thank god. If only it had been more permanent) and Elena went off to Esther with no backup.   
Caroline was sidelined as usual, and Elena wandered into yet another dangerous situation hoping the Salvatore idiots would be enough manpower to rescue her. Even lying on the hard dirt, still gasping and still in hideous amounts of pain, Caroline managed to roll her eyes. The day Elena forgets about those two can’t come soon enough. 

Being sidelined left a bad taste in Caroline’s mouth. Elena and Bonnie had been doing that since they were children, never able to include Caroline in anything beyond a surface interaction. Never mind that them leaving her out of things had gotten her killed, tortured and compelled, to name a few. .  
They had told her something the next morning, though, given her current situation, that was definitely a lie.   
The last thing she can recall is being in her house, testing Esther’s privacy spell with Bonnie and Elena, then she woke up on the ground and unable to move, went through excruciating pain and confusion, then here she was.   
Wherever here was. 

To make matters worse, she is certain that the ritual, the first one, has turned her human. She knows she isn’t a vampire, there is no way that she would feel this shitty if she was. Even post torture, she’d been able to bounce back fairly quickly, all it took was for the torture to stop and a couple of blood bags and she was back on her feet. Now, even the thought of trying to drink blood left her already upset stomach churning. 

A raindrop fell onto her face, and she knew she needed to get up, get inside and get out of the weather, before it turned into a real rainstorm. 

She can’t wait to get into a hot shower, and wash away whatever dirt she has picked up lying on this ground, wash away whatever was left from the freaky witch ritual. Once she has done that, she is going to have a good long yell at her friends, demand some answers from them. Maybe punch Damon if she gets the chance.   
When she tries to pick herself up off the ground though, everything is shaky, she feels like a baby giraffe. Limbs barely under control, she uses a nearby tree to prop herself up until she feels like she can lift her head to look around.   
Nothing looks familiar, which sends a twinge of worry down her spine. She had grown up in these woods, knew how to get from one end to the other in her sleep. Had stumbled home drunk through these trees more than once. 

Taking a bracing breath, she squares her shoulders, mentally talking herself into taking a step, breath still a ragged gasp through her chapped and bleeding lips (ew). 

As she leaned on the tree, she took stock of her body, she was so thirsty, dry mouth, limbs achy and weak.   
She’s so confused, she feels weak and she hates everything about this situation. 

She’s already thinking about what she is going to do when she sees her friends. Definitely a few choice words. Maybe even snap Damon’s neck if that’s what she needs to do, she’s prepared to take that step. 

Straightening against the tree, she prepares for the first step, hoping that her unsteadiness is only in her head, but as she lifts her feet, she trips over her bare feet, careening into another tree and smacking her head against the rough bark.   
“Ow, shit” she mutters, feeling the gash with her fingers, blood soaking into her hair. 

Choosing for a moment to recover instead of trying to move more, she tries to remember after the ritual. There was just a lot of pain, then nothing, and then a lot of chanting and bright light, and then she must have passed out again.   
Did they seriously leave her out here all night?   
Ugh, forget annoyed mad, she’s furious.

First of all, a pair of magical rituals, stripping her of vampirism, then a secret alliance with Esther, and leaving her in the woods all night, weak and human and alone? She’s definitely planning to punch Damon as hard as she can. As soon as she can without the threat of him killing her. She frowned at the sky, punching Damon now that she was human was going to be infinitely more difficult. 

She really needs to get better friends. Or she at least needs Elena to get over her weird attachment to Damon so she can rip his arms off and use them to beat him across the head. In his current state, she didn’t even think that Stefan would even mind.   
She indulges in her thoughts for a moment, knowing how good it would feel to indulge in a little violence, would appease her vampire instincts. Though, she doesn’t really have those anymore does she. 

Unfair. 

She shrugs the thoughts away for now, can feel the blood on her forehead, making a hot trickle down from her hair line. She needs to get to a doctor, she might even need stitches.   
God she’s tired, but she knows enough that she shouldn’t sleep.   
Taking a deep breath, she pushes herself into a sitting position, wiping the blood from her head.   
There are nothing but trees, bushes, little wildflowers, she can hear rustling in the underbrush, the birds, her own harsh breath.   
Having her vampire senses right now would help, she should be able to hear all the way to town if she tried hard enough. Right now, she can barely hear past her own heartbeat, pounding in her head, her breath too loud. 

Forcing herself to take a calming breath, she pulls herself to her feet using the tree she split her head open on. Her head swims, and she holds still, waiting for her vision to clear, for the black spots and the dizziness to recede so she can start the walk home. 

She isn’t even sure which way she needs to go to get home. Everything still looks unfamiliar, she knows though, if she picks a direction, she will come out somewhere, it will either be Tyler’s house, or Elena’s street, or hers or the grill, or school. 

Her first few steps are staggering more than walking, but using the trees and large bushes, she eventually manages to get some pace, though it’s still much, much slower than she would prefer.   
It takes her a long time to get to a small stream, maybe an hour, though her sense of time is not what it usually is.   
Given that she has been through two rituals and is decidedly weak, she feels proud of what she manages to achieve.   
This is the last thought she has before she blacks out, crumpling to the ground with a weak gurgle of surprise. 

………

He’s been walking, for how long he isn’t sure. Though he knows he will have to turn around soon to get back to the village before dark, especially if he is to avoid more of his fathers anger.   
It’s his fault Klaus has been avoiding the village, his father’s angry words pushing him through the woods better than his own two legs.   
He at least has caught some rabbits, a good handful of the sweet berries Bekah likes, enough for him to justify being away for the whole day.   
He decides to stop next to the stream, clean the rabbits so that he doesn’t have to do it at home. Henrik hates watching Klaus clean the innards.   
As he’s heading to the sound of water, he hears a loud ‘thump’ twigs snapping, birds taking off squawking indignantly at the loud noise.   
He takes his knife out, sneaks up stream towards the sound, heart in his throat, pounding loudly. 

He stops in surprise when he finds the source of the noise.   
It’s a girl.   
An unconscious girl.   
A mop of curls is wet, dark with blood, dirt and bits of leaves. She does seem to be breathing, though it’s shallow, uneven.   
She’s wearing odd trousers, a dark blue and sturdy looking, a soft looking tunic, though her feet are bare, covered in scrapes and raw looking.   
He frets for a moment, unsure of what he should do.   
He set the dead rabbits down, his pouch of berries, reaching for his water skin, annoyed to find it empty. Turning to the flowing water, he fills it, and washes a bit of the blood from her face.   
She’s very pale, and he can see she’s clearly been bleeding from her head and she doesn’t seem to have enough colour.   
He secures the rabbits to his belt, tucking the pouch into his tunic where hopefully the berries will be safe until he gets back to Rebekah.   
He needs to take the girl to his mother, needs to get help, but he is certain, if he leaves the girl, she won’t make it through the night.   
Picking her up is harder than he thought, she’s small, so it doesn’t take much, but she’s limp, and her limbs are askew. 

He wishes now that he had let Kol tag along like he had wanted to. It would make carrying her and the rabbits a bit easier. 

It takes him a long time to get back to the village, he’s never been so slow, and it's fully dark by the time he stumbles through the tree line, Ayana’s home in view. She comes out when he calls for her, his breath coming harsh in the evening air.  
“Niklaus,” she calls, her careful and quiet words cutting through the night air.   
“Bring her here” she directs him inside, putting a blanket close to the fire for the girl.

“Go and fetch your mother,” she gently pushes him back outside,   
“And Kol” she calls, as an afterthought, before he runs toward his family.   
Now free of his burden, he runs straight home, yelling for his mother. 

“Mother, Kol, Ayana has requested your help, there was a girl” he pants, his mother immediately abandons her sewing, and he fetches her satchel with her healing things.   
He trails after the two of them, and watches while they work. His mother sends him for water, and herbs from their houses, annoyed he thinks with his hovering. He takes his dinner outside, and sits leaning against the wall, listening to their movements, hushed and worried. It’s unusual for Kol, to be so serious, but he too works quietly, no jokes or   
His mother eventually comes out, wiping her hands, and tells him he’d better go home, that there is nothing left to do until she wakes. 

………

When she wakes up, she’s again lying down again, though thankfully this time, it’s not dirt. She still feels weak, but a thousand times better than she had last time she woke up. 

“Ah, you’re awake” a voice is soft, though she still winces as it works through the lingering fog in her brain.   
“No, don’t sit up” the same voice cautions her, though she doesn’t listen, pushing herself to sit up, can feel her head throb where she hit it on the tree. There’s a frustrated huff, before someone is supporting her, strong sure hands making sure she doesn’t slump down again.   
“Here, drink this” it smells odd, herbal and she is tempted to raise her eyebrows, but her stomach snarls, though she still hesitates, wary.   
“It’s just tea” the stranger assures Caroline, though it doesn’t smell like any tea she’s ever had.   
“When you finish this, you can have some hot broth” the woman tells her, and Caroline does a double take, sloshing the lukewarm tea over her fingers. 

It’s Esther.   
Her hair is longer though, and she holds herself a little differently, but it’s definitely Esther.  
“Get away from me” she pants, attempting to move away, though, she’s too weak to go anywhere, and Esther is half holding her up. She’s tempted to tip the tea, though it smells good.   
“What are you doing here?” she demands, tempted to tip the herbal tea and make a run for it. She refuses to trust Esther after her shady ritual the other night. 

“Be calm child, I am here to help. My son found you in the woods. You are injured” Esther steadies her, confused at her anger.   
“Do you not know who I am?” Caroline asks instead.   
“Should I?” Esther looks questioning, not at all like the dangerous calculation she wore the night of the ball, this is a soft curiosity, if anything, she looks worried for Caroline.   
It’s only then that Caroline looks around at the primitive wooden hut, Esther’s practical woollen dress, the simple shift that they had dressed her in.   
Her heart sinks, a cold sweat running down her back. She had been wearing jeans and a t-shirt when she had been at her house, before Elena and Bonnie had left her in the woods. 

Now she’s wearing a rough woollen shift, her jeans nowhere in sight, and she can tell she isn’t wearing a bra anymore. 

Shit, shit, shit. 

She does not like the implications of any of this. 

“What happened?” she asks, her voice is flat, barely containing her mounting terror.   
“One of my sons, Niklaus, found you while he was out hunting, you were unconscious in the middle of the wood. Covered in blood and dirt. He brought you to the village, you’ve been asleep for two days” She tipped her head, watching Caroline.   
“What is your name?” 

Caroline isn’t sure she likes it, but she’s getting an idea of what is happening, and she’s getting more and more nervous, she isn’t sure if she wants to talk anymore. She’s hoping this is all a bad dream, but the edges are very real, and there is no pain like this in dreams. 

“Caroline” she answered, wary.   
“Well met Caroline, I am Esther” she smiled kindly, before motioning to the tea again.   
“Drink this, you’ll feel better”   
Caroline shakily sipped at the tea. To her disappointment, Esther was right, the tea was soothing, and settled her stomach. 

Esther watches her drink the remainder of the tea in silence, and once it’s done, slowly feeds her some meaty broth, and it feels good.

Caroline’s mind is racing, and she can’t form words, and so she stays silent, until another woman comes in, this one looks familiar as well.   
“I am Ayana, you are in my dwelling” she introduced herself shortly, a bunch of sweet smelling herbs in her hands.   
“I am glad to see you awake, how do you feel?” She was neither rude, nor friendly, but she checked Caroline’s head wound with gentle, sure fingers. 

“Lost” Caroline answered, unsure what else she could say. 

“Esther, you should return home, your children need you. The girl will stay here for now” Ayana didn’t leave room for discussion, and Esther smiled softly, leaving them. Ayana is still   
“I know who you are child” Ayana says, watching her carefully, Caroline sags in relief. She wasn’t sure how to explain what was going on, where to start.   
“You were not of this time. I do not know what Esther did, only that she is responsible for you being here, the spirits tell me you are meant to be here”  
“Where even is ‘here’?” Caroline asks angrily, not liking what Ayana is saying.   
“We do not count time the way you do” is all she says, and Caroline can feel her eye twitch in frustration.   
Her anger is at an all time high. If she ever gets home she is going to murder Elena. 

………

“Klaus, what did you do?” Elena stands in the doorway to the Mikaelson house, yelling, though she isn't brave enough to put one toe across the door.   
Bonnie is awkwardly hovering behind her shoulder, fingers gripping Elena’s shoulder, the idiot brothers frowning from the driveway, arms crossed. 

Klaus smiles, then swallows his delighted expression, descends the stairs, coming to a stop in front of the group in his doorway. Narrows his eyes, as if he doesn't know exactly what the doppelganger and her merry band of idiots have done.   
He can hear Elena’s fast and terrified heartbeat, the tang of her adrenaline in the air, Bonnie’s anxious shifting, the threads of Elena’s shirt giving under her friend's tense grip. 

His mother’s nervous breathing from the kitchen sounds thunderous in the following quiet. 

“What are you bellowing about?” he asks mildly, adjusting the sleeves of his shirt, playing his part perfectly.  
As if his delightful wife hadn’t pulled most of the strings to ensure that it had happened exactly this way, has spent a truly atrocious amount of time to bring this about. She was surely allowed to have a little dramatics after a thousand years of planning.   
Elena is hovering on the doorstep, either not brave enough, or not allowed into the house by her idiot protectors. 

“Caroline?” is all she asks, pointedly, like he might be hiding her in a cupboard, or behind his back. He swallows down a laugh, Elena’s eyebrows are raised, her voice is all pointy sharp edges, and her anger is adorable.   
If he had known it would be this funny, he wouldn’t have left Kol at the hotel. No matter how much of a brat he was, he had outstanding comedic timing, he’s sure that Kol would have made this exchange all the more fun. He knows his wife would have loved to see this. 

He sighs, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Either come in or get out, it’s rude to linger in doorways” he turns, already knowing that they’re going to follow him to the drawing room, and he’s already settled into an armchair, drink poured by the time they’ve had a whispered debate on the doorstep, and followed him into the house. 

There’s a brief, tense moment while Klaus waits for someone to say something, before Stefan steps forward. 

“Where is she Klaus,” Stefan demands, breaking the silence. Stefan is clearly disappointed in the casual attitude Klaus has adopted, his feet kicked up on the coffee table. 

“I haven’t a clue, I haven’t seen her. Did you lose her?” he says this with a fully straight face, though his voice is a hair mocking. It’s far too easy to rile them up, he knows he shouldn't bait them but he’s having fun.   
“We know you did something '' Elena has found her voice, though he wouldn’t have called it threatening by any stretch.   
He does allow himself a small grin when Elena jumps as Rebekah breezes through the door,

“Maybe you should take better care of your friends” she suggests icily, sitting on the arm of Klaus’s chair, a politely mocking smile on her face, head tilted to watch the doppleganger with eyes run red.   
“Or maybe, you shouldn’t make deals with witches you don’t know” Rebekah’s voice is a blade, and the group shifts awkwardly, understanding dawning slowly, the doppelganger and the witch have paled considerably, exchanging nervous looks. 

“The spirits said I could trust her” the Bennett witch has pitched in, her voice quiet.   
He stifles another smile, though Rebekah isn’t bothering to hide her amusement. 

“And you believed them? How stupid are you lot?” she scoffed, and he knows his sister is rolling her eyes. A dreadful habit she had picked up from his wife. 

Klaus knows Rebekah had been given explicit instructions to make them uneasy, to make them sweat a little, in his wife’s place, seeing as she couldn’t and Rebekah was following instructions perfectly. 

“If I were you, I would do a little more research before blindly believing strangers” he raised his drink in their direction, before swallowing it in one go. “My mother is in the kitchen, maybe you should talk to her”   
They all left as one, Damon bringing up the rear, and when he turned back to look at Klaus, he raised his eyebrows to him with a mocking grin, done suppressing his mirth. 

If he had his choice of victims, it would be the elder Salvatore.

Thankfully the plan was going ahead without any major hiccups, Kol would be back from the hotel in the evening, and then the real fun would begin. 

Maddox would be binding Esther to the house as soon as Kol was back, stopping Esther from leaving, but it also meant the rest would be stuck until Klaus gave the word for it to come down. It was making tempers sharp and there had been more than enough arguments to last for several years.   
The only reason they had managed it was their pressing need to have this to go off without a hitch, and they were so close to this whole mess being done.   
Add in the fact that his wife had been in a hotel for far too long, and he missed her, he wasn’t interested in dragging this out any longer.   
The final step was in place, once Esther was finally dealt with and the other side finished, they would be free. 

Maybe he would take her on holiday, Paris was always lovely. 

………

Esther was sitting in the kitchen, awkwardly waiting for the doppelganger and her friends to confront her. 

She knew that stripping Caroline of the vampirism magic and sending her back in time was the right thing to do. She knew down to her very bones that it was right, Caroline didn’t belong in this time, not like she belonged then. 

It was why she was so confused to see her at her family's ball.   
She knew what she would have to do. Though it was not going to endear her to anyone in Mystic Falls. It would make human Caroline very, very wary of her for a long time. She hoped anyway, that’s how it was supposed to be, how it was before. 

It was how she had swayed Finn to her cause, well she thought he was on her side. She had tried to find Sage, to dangle her as bait for Finn, to keep him in line. But whatever she tried didn’t work, somehow the little trollop had been evading tracking spells, and Esther didn’t have the contacts to track her down, yet. 

She was in the kitchen, sipping tea and pretending she couldn’t hear the children yelling at Klaus. Elena seemed to be the most mad, Bonnie was silent. The backlash would be easy to contain, Finn already standing behind her, Elijah calmly making coffee, both ready to defend their mother and she was glad to have them there, it made her feel slightly more secure. 

“Esther, what did you do?” Elena was blazing, her fury written all over her face.   
“You were only supposed to take her vampirism, you told us you sent her home. She isn’t there, no one has seen her all day, she isn’t returning calls” Esther tilted her head, watched as they took up the doorway, not willing to enter the room, but not willing to leave either. 

“I did what I had to. She’s not coming back. There is no way” Esther took another sip of tea, watching it sink in. They really should have known better than to make deals with a stranger. 

“What are you talking about Esther?” Bonnie was quiet, her eyes darting around, nervous and wide, clearly uncomfortable in the middle of a room where the vampire to human ratio was vastly unfair.   
“I sent her home. Where she was supposed to be, she didn’t belong here” Esther was firm, and she felt secure with her two sons standing behind her. 

……….

Elijah didn’t often get involved in his siblings more nefarious plots. He tended to keep clear of the drama, and petty squabbles, though he took great pleasure in judging them for it.   
Usually he and Caroline would sit with a fine vintage, and watch Kol and Rebekah fight, usually verbally, sometimes though with swords, in a duel, or once an out and out fist fight. 

A thousand years old, and still they couldn’t get along. 

This morning though, he was enjoying listening to Klaus bait Caroline’s friends, he pretended to be busy, making coffee when his mother came in.   
He watched her closely, knowing that while she couldn’t leave, she was still crafty, and no amount of watching her was going to stop her from trying to escape. 

He could hear the mocking tone of Rebekah, though he wasn’t listening to the actual words, it was easy to guess what she was saying.   
The children stomped their way to the kitchen, turning into a wrong doorway more than was healthy, before barging in to yell at Esther.   
Honestly, even though she deserved it, it was rude in the extreme. Children these days have no respect.   
He sat at the island, facing the room, and watching it unfold.   
He heard the front door open again, and Kol’s steady footsteps, and finally the lighter steps of Caroline. Klaus will be pleased, he’s been an unbearable prick the last few weeks without her. 

Elijah sips his coffee, waiting for the show to unfold, a small grin hidden in his espresso.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look! Another time travel fic!!   
> Yes yes, I know. 
> 
> Anyway, leave me a review and let me know if you enjoyed this just yet! 
> 
> Thanks x


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